L'esorcismo - Ultimo atto

It seems that Russell Crowe has recently found his turn in films about devil exorcism. He recently made The Pope's Exorcist in 2023. People quickly think that this film is a sequel to that and that is absolutely not the case. In fact, this film had been ready to be released since 2019, but was pushed over to a release in 2024. So The Exorcism was already made a lot earlier than The Pope's Exorcist. The film is directed by Joshua John Miller and whoever has done a bit of his homework finds out that this is Jason Miller's son. Jason Miller played the role of Father Damien Karras in the absolute classic of the devil's 1973 exorcist film The Exorcist. The funny thing is that Joshua John Miller is making a remake of The Exorcist in the film, only with a different title. Anyway, the film sounds interesting and we are getting set up for an exciting horror movie, at least...

The film has a fairly original story about a lowered actor who tries to find his way back up in the film world. After his wife has died and Anthony Miller finally has his alcohol addiction under control, he is offered the role of a priest in a film about devil expulsion after a bizarre incident. Together with his estranged daughter Lee, he starts the project full of good hope. For a short film of just an hour and a half, the film takes a huge run-up and it really takes almost an hour before something really starts to happen. This will greatly disappoint many viewers, especially if you are going to expect a movie like The Pope's Exorcist or The Exorcist. This film is a true slow burner and a lot of time is taken to deepen everything. A number of peripheral cases are also cited in this where you can question of course, because what the added value of daughter Lee's lesbian relationship is in this film is a big riddle and really adds absolutely nothing to the film.

Crowe shows that he really still understands his acting profession. In the last half hour, Anthony becomes possessed by a demon and Father Conor's help is called in. This role is played by David Hyde Pierce, who may know people better than Frasier's brother, Dr. Niles Crane from the comedy series of the same name Frasier. That part becomes a lot more entertaining, but the final plot is a bit far-fetched and actually quite ridiculous. A made up demon for the film really seems to exist and has therefore taken possession of Anthony's body. Now Father Conor, Lee and her lesbian friend together have to drive out the devil who has taken possession of Anthony. Still, it's quite a shame that the film has such a course, because for the rest the film was reasonable and it really seemed like something on the way. The final course may be too predictable for words and you can actually guess. Especially if you are familiar with genre peers that I mentioned earlier in this piece.

The Exorcism starts as a slow burner and seems to be on its way to becoming a nice movie, but unfortunately there are a number of things that don't work out well. For example, daughter Lee's lesbian relationship adds absolutely nothing to the big picture, a made-up demon for the fictional film suddenly turns out to really exist and then we are presented with the end. This doesn't really make any sense at all and is also extremely predictable. Is the movie as bad as the first reviews make you believe? No, not that, but we can't speak of a good film. Now it must be said that I didn't really like The Pope's Exorcist a good movie either. It is therefore the huge run-up that takes the film from a good hour that takes the film. Had worked out the ending better and the film would really have been a lot better. If you expect a scary movie about devil extrusion, I recommend that you increase the expectation a lot, otherwise you will be really disappointed.

The scene setting to start was good, strong pacing and intriguing.

Unfortunately it never developed from there...loose story line, there was never any reason behind the occurrences of the film.

What relation did any of the references have to the story line? You'd have to see it for this to be a spoiler... and I don't personally think you should...

What happened to the characters?

Would I recommend this film? Simply put, no, spend your money watching something else!

It's a shame watching a film with Russell Crowe headlining and coming away from it saying.. why has he decided to star in this movie? Is this a sign his acting career has possibly seen better days?

If you want a few cheap jump scares go for it, but you've been warned!!

I was genuinely hoping some sort of 'The Pope's Exorcist' tie-in at the end as compensation for the time I wasted on this, but I can only dream.

The entire movie is a giant mess. Unsolved mysteries, forgotten characters and storylines and just dark - in terms of lighting; it was very hard to see some of the actors during some scenes.

It's neither gripping or scary. This movie is so bad that I can't get myself to even praise Crowe's performance.

I understand the production had huge hurdles to overcome but that won't even serve as an excuse for this awful film. How this managed to be green lit by so many execs etc and make it to the big screen will remain the real mystery.

As the title suggest, give this one a miss. You're actually better off not seeing it.

Giving this an 6/10 rating

Gets above 5 because Russell Crowe is good, as is David Hyde Pierce, Chloe Bailey is great, Adam Goldberg plays quite the unlikeable man in this, and it's really the performances that are good, the film is not enough, and at least it does have some good horror in it, as in a few good deaths, effects are good, it uses light, very well.

The set up is fine, the film is played out into day sessions, and Crowe's character goes deeper into the hell hole. It's not really that scary, but again, you have good acting but nothing really else that helps you feel that this is been done before, More needed on the characters and story please, think this might of been a rush job to get this one out, it's a disappointing film, not worth the trip unless you watch the trailer and it suits you.

The other big problem is that he played this character that is so similar in 'The Pope's Exorcist', a few months back, and a sequel is coming for that, go watch that instead of this. Like I wrote above, some good acting is why I gave it a 6 instead of a 5.

Why have exorcism movies become all the rage again? It's such a defeated sub-genre. There's no life left in it. I was really hoping 'The Exorcism' was going to do something unique or throw a twist on the concept. But no, it had nothing new to offer.

The only time this film really worked was during the interesting little glimpses behind the scenes of the movie within a movie being filmed. Like it wasn't overly captivating cinema, but compared to the tired "horror" the film was trying to put forward it was at least something with a pulse.

I never cared about the fate of any of the characters and never felt my heart-rate raise a single beat. This one was a miss. 4/10.